


Three Teenagers, Freaking Out Because One of Them Might Be (Half)Dead

by OutrageousOllo



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Danny not sure if he's dead or not, Danny trying to figure out what happened to him, Danny's first experiences with being half-ghost, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Mostly Canon Compliant, Panic Attacks, Phantom Planet isn't canon!, Post-Portal Accident, Pre-Series, at least Sam and Tucker are there for him, even though this is well before PP would happen anyway lol, imagine how terrifying it must have been though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:09:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25123702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OutrageousOllo/pseuds/OutrageousOllo
Summary: “Maybe we should take him to the hospital!”“It was his parent’s portal. We should tell his parents!”“No, don’t tell his parents! They’re nuts! They’ll probably think he’s possessed or something!”“Why’d you tell him to go into that portal anyway?!”“I thought he said it was broken! His parents were meant to be crackpots, it wasn’t supposed to turn on!”---An attempt at filling in the events directly after Danny’s portal accident and his first experiences with being half-ghost.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Sam Manson, Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley, Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson
Comments: 16
Kudos: 72





	1. (in the minutes and hours after)

**(in the minutes after)**

Danny tried to think, but his head felt like it was filled with electrified fog. He was laying on his bed, but he couldn’t remember how he got here. The air smelt acidic.

What just happened? He tried again to remember how he got here. The morning was a blur. Waking up. Eating cereal, without milk, because his parents had contaminated it with ectoplasm again. His parents going out, taking Jazz with them. He couldn’t remember what they were doing, just that they would be back later. And that they were upset. Something about their ghost portal not working.

Images of a portal filled his mind, dark and foreboding, then glowing and green. His parent’s portal! A deep feeling of horror struck, but he forced it down as the next memories came back. Sam and Tucker came over. They joked around, discussed what to do with their weekend. He mentioned his parents were working on a crazy failed ghost-zone/hell portal invention, so of course they wanted to see it, even though Danny wasn’t sure if it was such a great idea. Sam taking photos and Tucker marvelling at its size. Sam bugging him to take a closer look. Putting on a Fenton Safety Suit™ and then being convinced to step inside of the previously mentioned, not-working-but-no-less-spooky ghost portal invention.

The part with the portal, that was the only part Danny could remember clearly. Stray cables on the floor, feet slipping, accidentally leaning against a switch… then a bang, a flash, an alarm and a wall of green washing over him, burning, electrifying, melting him from the inside out. The feeling of being ripped apart, one cell at a time, until he was nothing but disembodied pain.

Then, relief. A cold flash of light and then somehow, using legs he had forgotten he had, he managed to stand and stumble out of the portal. Sam and Tucker, rushing over to help him, their horrified faces tinted green from the light of the portal. Slipping through Sam’s arms, collapsing onto the lab floor. How nice and cool the metal tiles felt compared to the burning green inferno behind him. Passing out.

His memories were getting blurrier again. Danny could remember being shaken awake, Sam’s mouth screaming at him even though it only sounded like a whisper. Tucker saying something about his hair and his eyes. Looking down to see black gloves where his white ones were and then passing out again, back to the metal tiles, which now felt warm compared to how cold he felt inside.

He awoke again—didn’t feel quite as cold this time, his gloves were back to normal—and was carried upstairs to his bedroom, Sam and Tucker pleading him to wake up and tell them him he was okay.

This is where Danny was now. He mumbled something and tried to sit up, failing on the first attempt. Sam and Tucker had turned away from him and onto each other, voices raised until they were yelling.

“Maybe we should take him to the hospital!” Sam looked like she was crying. Danny felt guilt hit him, dig deep into his chest.

“It was his parent’s portal. We should tell his parents!” That was Tucker, equally as upset.

“No, don’t tell his parents! They’re nuts! They’ll probably think he’s possessed or something!”

“Why’d you tell him to go into that portal anyway?!”

Sam’s voice broke. “I thought he said it was broken! His parents were meant to be crackpots, it wasn’t supposed to turn on!”

“Guys, what’s…” this voice was Danny’s own, raspy and weak. His head pounded, reliving the electrified memory. They didn’t hear him, still locked in their argument. Finding his strength, he brought himself to the end of his bed and sat up.

“What if he’s not okay! What do we do then!?”

“Guys!” Danny voice broke above their noise. Sam and Tucker turned back, angry faces fading into relief.

“Danny!”

“Thank god!”

For a few moments, there was nothing but silence and wiped tears. Danny, still confused, not quite sure if his painful portal memories were real or not, let out an awkward laugh. Tucker followed suit.

When they were done, Danny spoke again. “Guys, what just happened?”

Sam and Tucker frowned in response.

“Why do I feel like I just died?”

It was meant to come out as a joke, but Sam and Tucker’s horrified silence told him otherwise. His memories were not imagined. The portal, the burning, the cold…

**(in the hours after)**

An hour later and Danny was still sitting on the end of his bed, staring at the wall in shock. He hadn’t done anything but change out of the cursed jumpsuit, leaving it crumpled in a pile on the floor.

Sam and Tucker explained their side of the accident to him. It was not any less painful from the outside of the portal. One moment he was putting on the Fenton Safety Suit™, grinning from the entrance way after being coaxed into walking inside—“come on, Danny, how often do you get to take pictures inside of the non-functional portal to hell your parents built in your basement? I wish my parents were this wild”—the next he was gone, swallowed by a swirl of green.

They heard him screaming, trapped inside the portal. Danny found this odd because he didn’t remember screaming. Just an endless wave of pain and the feeling of being ripped apart in every conceivable direction. And then, just as Sam and Tucker were considering doing something stupid, like running in after him or calling his parents, there was a flash of light and Danny emerged, stumbling out of the portal. He looked different, skin deathly pale with an odd glow, colours reversed, hair unnaturally white and eyes a violent green, matching the swirling terror behind him. Sam had tried to grab him, but he fell through her arms like he was made of air. He collapsed.

Sam, who had been telling most of the story, became upset again, so Tucker took over, even though wasn’t doing much better.

After passing out once, Danny briefly came around again, as Sam shook him awake. Danny remembered this part. It didn’t last for more than a few moments before he passed out. He remembered catching a glimpse of his colour-swapped gloves, so he knew they were telling the truth. This time as soon as he fell unconscious there was a bright flash and two bright rings appeared, starting in his mid-section and travelling over his form, re-reversing the colours on his safety suit and bringing the colour back into his skin, removing the glow and swapping his hair back to its normal black.

They had no idea what the rings were or what they meant—but at least they had brought him back to looking normal. The rest was easier to explain. Sam and Tucker—very grateful that his parents were out—carried him up the stairs, into his bedroom. They argued and he finally regained consciousness.

Still on the end of his bed, Danny tried to focus on his breathing, trying to make sure he was okay before he dwelled too much more on the portal and the black and white form he had turned into. Ethereal white hair, glowing eyes. He had heard his parents describe ghosts many times. Apart from the fangs and the claws and the obsession with evil, that sounded just like…

He took another breath. No. Ghosts weren’t real. That’s what Jazz always said. He trusted Jazz. His parents were just crazy.

Sam was still really upset. “I’m sorry I made you go into the portal. Danny, I’m so…”

“It’s okay,” he told her, trying to sound reassuring, even though he wasn’t sure if he was. He didn’t feel okay. “At least you and Tucker are here.”

She and Tucker half-smiled in response.

Good thing it was a Saturday, or else they would have had to gone home. Another blessing; his parents and his sister were still out. Who knows what would have happened if they had witnessed the portal accident, the glowing, white-haired, green-eyed version of Danny stumbling out in his place.

They had been so excited to catch their first ghost…

“Don’t worry,” Sam assured him. “We’re not going anywhere.” Blinking away her tears, she pulled out her phone, calling her parents. As they spoke, she paced back and forth across his bedroom floor, bargaining, pleading for her mom to let her stay the night.

“We’re staying at Danny’s. Yes, with Tucker. It’s fine. Please, I’ll come out to dinner with you next weekend. I won’t even make you drag me. Please. Fine, I’ll wear that dress. Yes the pink one. Fine…”

Tucker, who was lucky enough to have parents he could convince with a single text message, started dragging out the spare camping mattresses and blankets and setting them up on his floor. A sleepover.

Under different circumstances, Danny would be excited. But instead all he could focus on was his limbs, still tingling with the phantom pain of whatever his parent’s ghost portal did to him, the lingering cold spot inside his chest, his head feeling dizzy and light and heavy all at the same time. He blinked as his arms vibrated and then flashed, growing translucent and then disappearing entirely.

Danny gasped. Where did they go! He wiggled his fingers. He could feel them, but not see them. Same with his legs, he realised as he looked down. Was he invisible? He made a new noise, a mixture between another gasp and a choked scream. Sam and Tucker looked over, faces turning to horror again as they saw, or more accurately, didn’t see him.

Luckily, it only lasted for a moment before the tingling subsided and Danny felt himself return to the visible spectrum. Tucker dropped the blankets he was carrying, and Sam quickly hung up, rushing to his side.

“What was that?” Danny asked, even though he wasn’t sure if his friends had the answer.

“I don’t know,” Sam said. “Did he do that before?” she asked Tucker.

“I don’t think so.” Tucker carefully poked his arm with his finger, like he was checking if it was still solid. “Only the thing where he slipped through your hands.”

Danny’s light-headedness returned and his breathing quickened.

“It’s okay,” Sam said, grabbing his shoulder. She flinched—probably, Danny thought, because of how cold he felt—but didn’t let go. “Calm down. It’s going to be okay. We don’t know what this is, but we’re going to get through this.”

“The portal,” Danny said, gasping between words. “It was meant to be a ghost portal. Does this mean… ghosts are real? Did it… turn me into a ghost? Is that why I feel so…”

Sam was silent for a moment. “I don’t know.”

“If I’m a ghost…” Danny sucked in another deep breath. “Does that mean I’m…”

“Danny,” Sam said. “No.”

He said it anyway. “Dead. Am I dead?”

“You’re not a ghost,” Tucker said, but even his voice sounded unsure.

“And you’re not dead!” Sam exclaimed, backing Tucker up. “You’re here in front of us. Breathing, talking. Not glowing and white.”

Danny snatched his shoulder away, and put his hand to his chest, pushing it against his ribcage. He felt something, but he wasn’t sure if it was his heart beating, or something more foreign, cold and buzzing inside of him. What was that? Frightened, Danny choked back tears. Why was there something else inside him? What did it mean? He moved his fingers up to his neck. It was a very odd motion, trying to find his own pulse but he managed, eventually finding and feeling the calming thump. It was a bit quieter than he thought it should have been, but it was there.

He forced himself to take in a deep breath. Okay. If he had a pulse, if he had a heartbeat, if he needed to breath, then he had to be alive. But that didn’t explain what else he felt.

Sam and Tucker looked at him expectantly.

“I’m alive. I… have a pulse, I mean,” Danny explained. He wondered if he should tell them about the cold feeling. “I don’t think I’m dead.”

“Danny,” Sam said, reaching forward and grabbing his wrist in her own, much warmer hand. “You’re definitely not dead.”

“Okay,” he breathed. After a moment, he took his hand back. Maybe it was just some temporary symptoms. A minor ecto-contamination.

“Don’t worry dude,” Tucker said. “You’ll be fine. Whatever it was, you’re okay now. And even if it comes back…”

Sam glared at Tucker, her look enough to cut him off. “We’ll be here for you.”

“Okay,” Danny said again. “Thanks. I trust you guys.”

The moment was broken by the sound of banging and Jack Fenton’s booming voice downstairs, vibrating through the house. Danny paled again, knowing he was faced with a whole new set of problems. Oh no. His parents. They were home. The portal. Was it still going? What would they think when they realised it was working?

Sam and Tucker sighed and shared a look.

“Don’t worry Danny, we’ll deal with your parents.”

He knew what his parents would think of all this. The way they constantly spoke about ghosts, how they were unnatural, sinister impressions left by those unable to fully cross over… Danny used to think his parents were delusional, talking of undead spirits from another dimension, but how he was terrified they weren’t. The last thing he wanted was for them to think he was a… ghost. “Please don’t tell them…”

“We won’t.” Sam promised. “We don’t even know if this is going to be a permanent thing or not.”

“You seem normal now,” Tucker added. Danny nodded, even though he wasn’t sure if he felt that way.

Sam smiled at him, before taking Tucker with her to the door. “Just stay here and try to relax.”

Danny sighed as they left, his bedroom door closing behind them. He wanted to believe them, that what had happened was only temporary. But something, the deep cold that he felt deep down inside his chest, told him that it wasn’t.


	2. (later that evening)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do Danny's parents know he was the one to fix their portal? Or did Danny, Sam and Tucker try to hide it? Also does anyone else wait until late at night and until they're too tired to be self-conscious to post anything? I hope you enjoy :)

**(later that evening)**

The better part of the evening after Danny’s portal accident was spent trying to distract themselves from the day’s events. Sam joked about how easy it was to convince his parents to let them stay the night—she said they had a group project for English, which may or may not have been a lie. Tucker showed Danny memes on his PDA, a special collection he’d created just for times like this. They talked about plans, downloading a movie, what takeout they should order. Tucker did something to make Sam attack him with her eyeliner and overall, it was just nice. Danny appreciated it.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last. Their peace was shattered when Danny’s parents suddenly burst up the stairs, shaking the house with their loud voices and excited footsteps.

“Kids, you’ll never believe it! The ghost portal, it’s working!”

Inside his room, Danny blanched, Tucker cringed, and Sam swore.

“Did we not turn off the portal?” Danny asked, feeling nervousness pool in his gut. Sam looked at Tucker.

“No? I didn’t know how. And besides, we were more concerned with Danny at the time. Then his parent’s came home and—” his voice was cut off by Mr Fenton’s continued calling.

“Danny! Jazz!” Jack continued to call, his voice vibrating through the bedroom wall. “Come see the family ghost portal! The Fenton Ghost Portal! It works!”

“Danny!” His mom knocked on his door, opening it and sticking her head in without waiting for a response. “You could show your friends!”

Danny was shocked they were so carelessly inviting them downstairs. Surely, if they had designed the portal, they would know how dangerous it was. Right? Of course, his parents had no idea they’d already been down into the lab. That they were the ones to _turn it on_. “Um…”

It was the first time he’d seen his parents since getting accidentally fried by their portal and he had no idea how to react. He should be happy for them, right? Happy that their portal—the invention they’d spent the last ten years on—was finally working? Should he feel guilty?

“Yeah, Sam, Tucker!” His dad added, filling the doorway. “If you’re staying the night, you need to see our ghost portal!”

“No, we can’t!” Danny suddenly blurted, before he could stop himself. Sam and Tucker looked at him in alarm.

His mom frowned. “Why not, Danny?”

“Um,” he stuttered. His skin started tingling again, the sensation quickly spreading through his limbs. He shook his head, both in response and to get the feeling out. Not again! He ducked behind his bed, trying to make it look like he was crouching down to get something (and not hiding, like he definitely was.)

“Uh,” Sam said, trying to draw attention away from Danny’s actions. She shot a concerned look in his direction. “Sorry, Mrs Fenton. But Danny’s right, we can’t. We just don’t have time. We really need to work on our English project. We were just going to order takeout and get into it.”

“We could all get takeout!” Danny’s dad sounded even more excited than before, if such a thing could be possible. “We can eat it in the lab, while we watch the portal for ghosts!”

“No, Jack,” his mom replied. “We can’t have food in the lab, not after what happened with the burgers. You remember the burgers.”

His dad whined in response. 

“It’s okay, kids. You sound busy. You can always see it next time.” Danny sighed in relief from behind the bed as their voices turned away. “Let’s ask Jazz. She has no excuse; she has to come down!”

“Hey Jazzy! Come down to the lab! Oh, Mads, I hope we see a ghost! I wanna catch one! Those evil spooks—”

Danny heard Sam quickly close the door and he sighed, relieved he didn’t have to hear the rest of his dad’s sentence.

Tucker coughed. “Nice save.”

Danny groaned, feeling himself flicker back into visibility. He pulled himself up and flopped onto his bed, cringing. Sam and Tucker walked over, looking down at him from either side.

“Did you do that thing again?” Tucker asked, having seen him duck but not seen why. Danny nodded, not feeling like giving any more of an explanation. “Is this going to be a recurring thing?”

“We’re so screwed,” Danny lamented, rolling over. “I’m so screwed. I can’t hide this. They’re going to wonder how the ghost portal turned itself on.” He buried his face into his mattress, but it didn’t help.

“But they won’t know it was us, right?” Sam asked.

Tucker frowned. “Surely your dad will just blame it on the ghosts.”

Danny shook his head, wishing he could agree. “No. They have cameras set up. They’ll look at the footage.”

“Well,” Tucker awkwardly laughed. “If it’s a technology thing… now that’s something I can take care of. But you could just tell them. They’re ghost scientists, if your, um, problem is, well—” Tucker paused, looking off to the side for a moment “—ghostly, then maybe they’ll be able to help. Also, they’re your parents. They wouldn’t do anything—”

Sam interrupted him. “Did you not hear Danny’s dad before? About catching a ghost and—”

“I thought we agreed Danny’s not a ghost?”

Danny lifted his head up. “I’m not, I…” he paused and took a deep breath. _No, you’re not a ghost_ , he reminded himself. _Ghosts are dead._ He didn’t know much about ghosts, apart from his parent’s ramblings but he knew that much. _You’re not dead_.

“But think I looked like one, when I came out of the portal.” Danny tried to say this matter-of-factly, like he trying to approach this from a logical angle, convince himself. So _then why do I still feel cold inside?_ “My parents might jump to the conclusion that…”

“Okay. Don’t worry.” Tucker gave him a reassuring smile. “Deleting camera footage? Tucker’s your guy. So are we talking digital or…” he sheepishly grinned. “You know what? It doesn’t even matter. Give me ten minutes and a distraction. Fifteen tops.”

Twelve minutes and a very loud, very embarrassing but very effective help-Mr-Fenton-there’s-a-ghost-outside-the-bathroom-window later, Tucker returned, triumphantly holding a plain white flash drive in his outstretched hand. Danny was pretty sure his parents were going to have to deal with noise complaints from the neighbours again, but honestly, that was a normal Saturday night for the Fenton household.

Danny hesitantly took the flash drive. “You deleted it, right?”

Tucker rolled his eyes. “Who do you think I am? Everything since this morning, completely wiped. I also unplugged the camera system, tried to make it look like your Dad accidentally knocked it before they went out. Nothing left, no backups except for what I saved on that flash drive.”

Sam, who had been watching idly out the window as Jack Fenton tried to unwrap a strangely luminescent net from around a fire hydrant, snorted and turned back to Danny and Tucker. “That’s actually pretty smart of you. I kinda feel bad for Danny’s dad though. Looks like he’s had enough.”

Danny continued to look down at the white flash drive in his hands. He fingered the cap.

“What are you going to do with the footage?”

“Um.” Honestly, he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t thought that far yet. “Probably hide it for now?”

(He ended up just putting it in an old shoebox in the back of his closet, where it would remain, hidden but not forgotten, until it was discovered, three years, five months and twenty-eight days later. But that’s another story.)

**(later that night)**

Danny’s dreams were laced with green and electricity, tumbling and falling and burning until he violently awoke, gasping and spluttering. He felt numb for a moment and then suddenly he was falling again, through his bed—wait, what—and onto the floor. On reflex, he rolled and pushed his arms out, only to smack into Tucker as he snored on the camping mattress beside Danny’s bed.

“Hggh, what,” Tucker moaned, pushing himself into a half-sleeping sitting position. “What gives?”

“Sorry,” Danny mumbled, moving his arms away and blinking as he tried to process what was going on, shaking the remnants of the nightmare from his mind. His room was barely visible in the darkness, illuminated only by the cool slither of light breaking in through a gap in his curtains and the radioactive green blinking of his bedside clock. 03:07. Not a good time to be awake. He tried to copy Tucker and pull himself up, but slipped as his hands failed to find purchase. Something was not right. He succeeded on the third try, his hands still feeling numb and uneasy. He looked down and saw himself involuntarily flicker.

By this point Sam had woken up too, pulled awake by the sound of Danny’s confused yelps. “What’s going on? Danny, why are you on the floor?”

“Um.” He fumbled around with his arms again and reached for the side of his bed, his tired confusion turning into panic as his hand passed through like it wasn’t there. “I think I fell through it, and now I can’t grab…”

“Huh?” Sam said, pushing her blankets off and crawling to her feet.

“Dude,” Tucker gasped as Danny failed again to grab onto something. “Your eyes are…”

He didn’t need to finish the sentence as Danny put his hands in front of his face and saw for himself, the ghostly green light reflected into his palms. He choked and pulled his hands away, grasping at the floor as a sinking feeling overtook him. Sam, moving faster than he would have assumed possible at three-am in the morning, jumped over Tucker and grabbed his arm before he could fall into the floor. He clung to her like a lifeline, grateful to feel something solid again.

“What’s happening to—”

“Calm down, breathe,” Sam ordered. “I’ve got you.”

“Why can’t I—” His words were lost in his struggle to exhale. Somehow, through the chaos the floor solidified (or was it him who was solidifying?) below him and she was able to release her grip.

“It’s okay,” she said, even though he was sure that at this point they both knew it wasn’t. “It must be another side-effect.”

“You think?” Danny shook out his arms, trying to rid himself of the feeling. Tucker stepped in and the two of them helped him to his feet.

Danny took a few more breaths and stood with shaky legs, not trusting the floor beneath him. He took a tentative step. His friends looked upon him with concern. “I think it’s over.”

“Sure?” Sam asked.

“Yeah,” Danny said, even though it felt like a lie. “I just wish I knew what was going on. Or how I’m meant to sleep after this.”

A look crossed Tucker’s face. “Maybe you’re getting superpowers.”

Sam made a noise in the back of her throat. “Tucker!”

Danny winced at the volume of her voice, but continued back to his bed, sitting on the end. “Superpowers would be cool. This is just freaky.”

Sam sat down beside him, Tucker following suit. “We can figure it out.”

“How?” Danny asked, his voice snapper than he intended for it to be. He blamed the tiredness, the bad sleep, the weird side-effects of the portal accident. He breathed in, trying to keep his voice low so he wouldn’t wake up Jazz or his parents and risk making things even worse. “What’s your plan?”

“Tomorrow. We can spend the day figuring this out. Do some research. Maybe this is common ecto-contamination.”

The phase ‘ecto-contamination’ made him think of his parent’s hotdogs. It shouldn’t have, but just the memory of sentient glowing hotdogs was enough to make him calm down a little, the corner of his mouth twisting into a smile. It was so silly, he couldn’t help himself.

“Worse case, we can still ask your parents.” Danny frowned. “Not tell them,” Tucker defended. “Just ask them if they’ve heard of anything like it. People with ghost-symptoms. Ghost powers?” Tucker smirked. “We can claim we’re curious. Ghost powers sound cool.”

Danny snorted. “You know, if you say _ghost powers sound cool_ , or anything else positive about ghosts, they’re going to lecture you and possibly shoot you with the Fenton Foamer, right?”

“What’s that?”

“Harmless glowing foam.”

Tucker grinned. “It’s for the cause.”

“Okay.” Danny let himself laugh a little. Sam just shook her head. They sat like this for a few more moments before Tucker spoke up again.

“See? Your eyes have stopped glowing now.”

Danny sheepishly smiled at his two best friends. He felt calmer, too. “Okay. Thanks guys. But I still don’t feel like going back to sleep.”

Sam laughed quietly. “Sleep is for the weak, anyway.”

Tucker’s grin increased. “I’ve got my three-way headphone adapter! Who’s up for watching Nightmerica 2?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! <3 I plan on doing more parts! If you really like me you can follow me on tumblr [here!](https://ollopollollo.tumblr.com/)


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